2018 IDEA Awards | Feature Article | Melbourne, VIC, Australia

277 Australian projects have been shortlisted for the 2018 Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA Awards) across 13 categories and two special awards. Now in its 16th year, the IDEA Awards shortlist was announced at an event at Melbourne’s Canvas House on Thursday 16th of August.

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Pepper Sydney, by Hassel. Image courtesy of IDEA.

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Chandon Australia by Fooscap Studio. Image courtesy of IDEA.

Architects EAT, DesignOffice, Doherty Design Studio, Hassell, Luchetti Krelle and Russell & George were all nominated in the Designer of the Year category as entrants took the stage to present their work to the jury.

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Mardi Doherty of Doherty Design on stage at the shortlist event. Photo by Jayden Ostwald.

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The Budapest Café by Biasol, in the International category. Image courtesy of IDEA.

The jury includes Christie Petsinis, Iain Halliday, Jan O’Connor, David Flack, Hamish Guthrie, Kirsten Stanisich and Christopher Boots. Assessment of the entrants will focus on work submitted to this year’s IDEA competition, with practices that demonstrate a consistently high calibre of output across a variety of typologies being highly regarded. The jury panel judged the Designer of the Year entrants on the projects they presented and the winner will be selected and announced at the gala on 23 November in Sydney.

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Architects EAT, entrants in the Designer of the Year award. Photo by Jayden Ostwald.

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8Bit Little Collins by Architects EAT. Image courtesy of IDEA.

Meanwhile, highlights across the other categories included Fonda Bondi by Studio Esteta and Chandon Australia by Foolscap Studio in hospitality. Bendigo Hospital by Silver Thomas Hanley in collaboration with Bates Smart and the Learning Teaching Building, Monash University by John Wardle Architects in the institutional category. The Budapest Café by Biasol and Sean Connolly at Dubai Opera by Alexander&CO. in collaboration with Tribe Studio were nominated in International.